Last night, just before 9:30 p.m., Orange County saw its first officer-involved shooting in a good minute. Unlike two recent police kills in Los Angeles — that of unarmed Reggie Doucet, Jr. and South L.A.'s Earl Rose — the victim of this Garden Grove face-off was carrying a knife, and was not afraid to use it.

Garden Grove police, disguised in an undercover vehicle, pulled over a white sedan with three people inside after somehow gathering that a robbery was about to go down.

According to KTLA, one law-enforcement officer identified himself as such upon approaching the vehicle. That's when things got ugly.

From the backseat of the car, an unidentified suspect actually managed to stab the officer as he flanked the vehicle. Upon noticing/feeling the knife, the undercover cop immediately opened fire and killed the stabber where he or she sat.

The O.C. officers had followed the sedan from Garden Grove Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue to the intersection of Galway Street and Garden Grove, between Asian restaurants to the south and a medical facility to the north.

As of this morning, the stabbing suspect was long dead, the stabbed officer was in the hospital and the other two suspects were in police custody (one with minor injuries, the other unscathed).

From the news 'copters:

 

With reporting from City News Service.

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